Health Care - Am I My Brother's Keeper?

Let me ask the following questions for your consideration:

1.  Am I (each of us) responsible for my fellow person/citizen?

2.  When (if ever) does it become time to stop discourse and debate on a subject?

3.  Should anyone be compelled to an action against their will, even if it for their benefit?

4.  Is it right to punish someone for their deeply held personal beliefs?

5.  Where does the individual end and the group begin?

6.  Should we ever stop listening to arguments because they are uncomfortable?

7.  What are the social/cultural/moral implications of the inequitable application of a law?

8.  If something is the 'law of the land' does that automatically make it moral or right?

9.  What (if any) is the obligation of a private citizen of this country in the face of a course of action they firmly believe to be for or against their best interest?

10.  How far would you go to stop something you believed was wrong or protect something you believed was right?

When you strip away the storm and chaos surrounding the theater of the absurd that we call our federal government these days; the above questions are the ones that I believe reach into the heart of the health care debate in this country.  It isn't about procedures and pills, who can or can't afford a doctor, left or right wing politics.  No it is about the oldest question ever asked when Cain answered God with "Am I my brother's keeper?"

Aside from the fact that the health care system in this country is badly misaligned (from hospitals, to big Pharma, to our own unrealistic expectations, the topic of another blog another time) the center of the debate isn't even about should we or shouldn't we find a way to give 30 to 40 million Americans free or reduced health care.  It still boils down to, are the haves responsible for the have nots.

Here is my rather long winded answer to the above questions.  I have always had a hard head and a soft heart.  I'm the guy who keep complaining about a welfare state then turns around and gives a pan handler a dollar even though I know he will probably not spend it wisely.  I'm the guy that collect for the homeless shelter then complains about people not being willing to work for a living.  In other words, I am a walking contradiction.  So how to I resolve that conflict?  I don't really.  For every massive policy decision, politicians look for a human face to plaster onto cold, hard facts.  I have genuine sympathy for everyone of those sad stories that are used to sell some legislation or budge initiative.  However, emotional rhetoric does not make hard fact go away. And I am a servant of facts and logic.

The hard fact is that whatever success and standard of living this country has enjoyed is a direct result of the decisions our ancestors made on how they wanted to run their live then and into the future.  Establishing both the type of open, citizen driven government we would have along with a open market economy set us on the road to enduring civic and social engagement as well as long lasting general prosperity.   Strong verse weak central government and controlled verse open markets have been a discussion and bane of our existence as a nation since the beginning.  We have paid in blood for this fight (the Civil War) and always pay when we forget the two cornerstones of our system that have allowed us to survive and thrive as a nation. When we forget the concepts of personal liberty and compromise we end up where we are now, in a dark place, fighting with one another.  What does any of the preceding have to do with health care reform and legislation? 

Everything.

This administration has completely forgotten the two cornerstone.  What's more, through a morally ambiguous and often fact free narrative, the administration has convince large sectors of the country that they are worse off than they think and only the government can save them.  The loyal opposition is no better.  Rather then carefully crafted responses of logic and reason or living up to the title of loyal opposition, they choose to use the same emotion laden tactics as the current administration and get right down in the mud with them.

And where does that leave the majority of the American public?

We have become a divided people again.  Personal liberties have been threatened or removed, the art of the compromise seems to have been lost and facts are up for grabs to the highest bidder or loudest ideologue.  We have been so busy yelling at each other and defending our egos that we forgot what started the fight in the first place.  And that brings me back to the question and start of our argument; "Am I my brother's keeper".  If you believe you are personally responsible for the well being of all your fellow humans then any initiative, argument or activity that supports that world view is one you will support, fight for and maybe die for.  If you believe that everyone is personally responsible and accountable to themselves and some higher power, then you are in opposition to your brother with equal measure of devotion to your beliefs.  These philosophies go beyond health care reform, insurance reform, even America.  They are as old as man and time itself.  We have survived as a species and a country by remembering to compromise while we do our utmost to respect personal liberties.

Taking care of our fellow citizen is an good emotional argument and you can attach some good numbers to it to add a touch more rigor and legitimacy to it but have any of us done a really neutral study of trying to successfully take care of every man, woman and child in America?  I would say that in spite of the mountains of narrowly focused data, we have not really considered if we can successfully do it much less if we even should try.  And based on my experience with government agencies verse private foundations, the belief that a central agency often far removed from the immediate problem can effect a working solution remotely does not pass the straight face test.

So why are we here now?  Because an arrogant man with a barely nodding acquaintance with the truth and a will to power decided he was going to make a country do his bidding whether we all wanted to or not.  Rather than exercising patience, consensus building, focused, workable solutions, he in a fit of ego thought he could singlehandedly transform the landscape of American life as a lasting legacy to his leadership (or lack thereof).  Sadly for us all, he has failed and rather miserably.

The Affordable Care Act and all its companion legislation has been so poorly implemented, badly written, inequitably applied that we as a nation will be fighting about it for the next ten years at least.  Even before the country was able (read forced) to "shop" for insurance, key provisions of the law where selectively not enforced, delayed or dropped altogether.  Set aside for a moment the constitutional violation of the executive not enforcing a law enacted by congress and of the abuse of executive authority involved with piecemeal enforcement.  Look at the glaring hypocrisy of declaring to the world "my health care reform has been decided, stop arguing about it and just do it" only to find that half of the people involved don't have to comply with some or all of the law.  This isn't just bad legislation, implementation and enforcement; it bad leadership.

The idea is not bad, give a helping hand to those who needed it.  Even hard headed me can see both the moral imperative and economic advantage of having a healthy work force and benefits of reduce health care debt.  But think about the best way to do it.  Have options, listen to all parties, take your time and then build something small and focused that most everyone already agrees upon.  Take ACA back to bare metal and rebuild a smaller, leaner, market driven approach with plenty of personal options and no regressive penalties and you will be surprised at the positive response.

Or just try and bull your way through bad, strongly opposed, poorly enacted and enforce legislation that will face endless legal challenges and hope that some monstrous shadow of the former "Grand Scheme" survives to the end our your presidency, walk off and declare victory.

Either way, this country is a long way from a working, lasting solution to health insurance reform.  And we still won't resolved the question, "Am I my brothers keeper"

Just say'n
:)